Bo Kampmann Walther, Lasse Juel Larsena
a University of Southern Denmark, Denmark
This paper is a theoretically informed reading of the television series 24, which we argue to be a prominent and instructive example of ludification, ie. the use of game design elements in non-game threshold between (non-linear) games and (linear) stories. The analysis of 24 focuses on how a fic- tional character increasingly transforms into avatar, notably by becoming the very physical person- We argue that there is a close connection
methods with which he tackles and deploys speed television
series alters the architecture of narrative into a ludified system obsessed with modes of representing speed and controlling territories of aggression and danger.
Ludification, ludology, theory, cinematic television, new media studies
Nowadays, video games influence surround- ing media, motion pictures, television series, commercials, web content, even journalism and social media communication [1, 2]. This influ- ence is called ludification. However, ludification should not be confused with boosting incentives or optimizing goal-oriented behavior by utilizing game components, i.e. what we now know as gamification [3, 4, 5, 6]. Instead, ludification re- fers to the way that media tell stories shaped by the structural design and appeal of computer games. The challenge with attempting a univer- sal explanation of ludification is that it should at one and the same time be hard to vary (Popper) and
define ludification very formally as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts with objects
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and story structures residing in the threshold be- tween (non-linear) games and (linear) stories [7].
Likewise, ludo-interpretation (ibid.) is our term for the methodical readings that pay close attention to the ludic foundations of contempo- rary media stories, such as 24 (Fox 2001-2010, 2014), a prominent and instructive example of ludic storytelling.
With regards to the development of the sci- ence of ludification, our paper contributes on three levels: 1) Theoretically, by broadening the scope and subject of ludification by distancing the term from gamification, which is very much focused on feedback and motivation in respect to learning; and furthermore to produce a specific vocabulary for the kind of gamified [8]
(ludification) both in cinema and on tele- vision that adopts various techniques from computer games. 2) Methodologically, by show-
ing how ludo-interpretation systematically oper- ate when critically applied to a media text (the case of 24). 3) And, finally, analytically, by ten- tatively paving the way for other readings and/or adaptations of playful [9, 10, 11], ludified media in a more practical context [12].
Although ludification ties in with both gami- fication and the concept and practice of trans- media [13, 14, 15] it possesses unique character- istics and qualities of its own, primarily evolving around playful ways of creating and interacting with stories. We consider a deep understanding of ludification vital for
concept, i.e., ludo-interpretations. Overall, ludi- fication can be viewed as a larger trend that sees a rising importance of play in, while gamification is a subset of it, the strategy aiming at making non-game phenomena more similar to games.
to be a formal term for what could be coined a e.g., televi- sion series. Thus, a ludification of storytelling a ludification across media and platforms emerges at the intersection between convergence culture and gamification and 24 is a perfect ex- ample of such dynamic.
Games have enjoyed astonishing popularity from the industrial triteness of Pong (Atari 1972) to the polished triple-A production of Assassins Creed (Ubisoft 2007-). Economic and cultural impact are on an unremitting upward trajectory and has placed play, games and media at the heart of a dispersed ecology of practice ranging from local identity creation to global cultural produc- tion and usage as well as a heightened sense of imagination and manifestation of imagery [2]. In cultural studies there is a growing study of how the introduction of elements of playfulness into our lives and culture shape processes of mediali- zation and the formation of participatory cultures [13, 16].
The result of all this spirited media conver- gence (which is a far cry from only being sub- culture) is a complex tie-in between the game in- dustry and big budget contemporary films and television [17].
A few examples: True Detective (HBO 2014- ) with all its Lovecraftian twists and weird my- thology is also a reference to the split between who knows the system and the plot from the in- side. The fiction presents characters who experi- ence traumatic events. But afterwards, when they narrate to the viewers (and fellow detectives) what really happened, they lie. Who (or what) are
we to thrust? Images (experience) or words (nar- rative)? Indeed, this split between what happens, and how it is told or represented, is a basic trait of playing games: I am and am not the character I play [18]. At the heart of gaming lies a ritual- acclaimed series True Detective is all about lies, and it can be viewed as an allegory of the unreli-
knows her way around games and musters all the collective intelligence of the information age, Amazon, Reddit, and YouTube included, to exe- cute the interrogatory task of unravelling the real
This can of course only be hinted at here, but the disparity between protag- onist and narrator is elevated to both meta-fic-
- (and sar-
casm) in the first-person exploration game The Stanley Parable, a (Galactic Cafe 2011).
The surprise hit series Dark (Netflix 2017-) German underdog and now a major Netflix in- stallment extends the intricacies of time travel and time paradoxes to a point where spectators thrillingly lose their footing, very similar to game players losing sight of direction in complex mazes. The chaos cinema [19] of the Mission Im- possible franchise (Paramount Pictures 1996-) comes out as a highly regulated play world with capture the flag game features and an inbuilt in- ventory list. Lost (2004-2010) owed its success to Myst (Broderbound 1993-2010), Robyn and 1993 that triggered a fast forward evolution in high polygon rendering and complex storytelling in games.
In television series 24 (2001-2014) we follow Jack Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, a pro-Bush, strike-first Rambo 2.0 armed with a smartphone and high-
to say that 24 fashioned a new visual generation of cinematic television dressed up as video games: In reality, 24 is an action game without a controller.
The following reading investigates how a fic- tional character increasingly transforms into av- atar, notably by becoming the very physical per- sonification of the abstract notion (and sensation)
claim that there is a close Bauer and the various methods with which he tackles and deploys speed, and furthermore how the television series itself alters the architecture of narrative into a ludified system obsessed with
modes of representing speed and controlling ter- ritories of aggression and danger.
The avatar of Kiefer Sutherl
in the television series 24, is not playable in the traditional, physio-ontological sense, using a controller and a gaming interface [20]; but the se- ries
[7] within a game world based on game rules. It is the game struc- ture overlain on top of the fictional construction that brings forth certain types of quasi-physical interactions, and therefore one may ask: How far can cinematic media venture in their desire to mselves? As we shall see in the read- ing of 24 this question is very much tied up with Arabs, daughters, and game mechanics of fire- arms and cars loaded with smart technology.
Our paper is structured the following way:
Taking off from a list of game elements in 24, we look closer at how the organization of screens, viewpoints, and representation of information become not only means to piece the narrative of 24 together, but further how they together con- A
tors of speed and power and the various moving vehicles of Bauer follows next along with read- ings of how this territorialization contributes to the representation of 24 as a game world with game rules [21, 22, 23, 24] and a corresponding gameplay. The paper ends with a tentative con- clusion and some theoretical thoughts on the con- fines and limits of ludo-interpretation.
There is a scene in 24 where Jack Bauer, ex- hausted, stripped of all his American preroga- tives, stares into the camera. Intuitively (at least to invoke the tradition of puncturing the fourth wall of storytelling, turning this rather banal scene into a sign of self-referential cognizance, But this is not the case. Bauer does not gaze into the camera as if to question his own fictional partaking. He is not some stupid action hero well, some might think he is scooped by imprudent rules that keep him trapped inside fancy vehicles and a fast-paced movie. Jack looks into a monitor that belongs to the sophisticated telecommunication gear of CTU, no more no less. If there is any classiness in his frantic stare it does not stem from a repro- duction of the spectator gaze. Rather, it refers to
the omnipresence of the kind of televised equip- ment necessary for regional dominance and con- trol of power: people watching Jack while Jack watches others. Jack Bauer is a playable gamer:
we play him while he plays the game. This is al- most like watching games brought to life on Twitch [25]; or cheering on
YouTuber, say, Pewdiepie, to make it to the next level [26]. However, Jack is neither supposed to know that he is playing a game (and that we are playing a game with him in it), nor detect refer- ences to a wider world of commercial games and gaming communities. Essentially, he becomes the Fix-It character in the animation movie Wreck-It Ralph (Walt Disney Studies 2012). Or, more to the point, he is a tragic embodiment of Mario who in his blissful ignorance constantly
tries -end-
ing entertainment installment, but of course with real guns and real blood instead of mushrooms and lucky coins.
24 is a
dence of a growing trend in cinema and televi- sion: the ludification of story objects and story structures. 24 is an example of how a traditional, Aristotelian story with a beginning, middle, and an end, has become ludified and which therefore calls for a type of enquiry a ludo-interpretation
rooted in computer game theory (ludology).
We propose the following list of game (or ludified) elements in 24. Note, that the list is de- liberately made up of standard industry terms;
features that occur in almost any commercial game.
Main character/avatar/gamer: Speed aka Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland).
: The Bauer-
all of whom are ludic devices set within a confined game world with game mechanics and obeying game rules.
(their AI): Potential destructors of through spaces or levels.
: Keep car stable and oper- Setting (game world): Los Angeles (or New York or London).
Rules for transgressing game world: Travel to China, get captured and tortured; return with a full beard.
This only happens between seasons. As does potential divorce(s), drug addiction and recovery, and aging.
Core mechanics: Special use of weapons, Armor, Catch-Up, increase/decrease of Class, general XP and HP.
Time: Real-time, 24 hours (minus commercials).
Cutscenes: Presidential orders, rogue instructions, tially all of them). Can be combined using split- screen.
Sites on the game board: 1) Officiary facilities, 2) rain, eachequipped with core mechanics and a sym- metrical amount of AI to keep Bauer busy.
Game Balance: Constant asymmetry bet Goal: Save the world.
Save game: Every 24 hours. Micro-save during com- mercial breaks.
The TV series 24 first aired on the American Fox Channel in November 2001, problematically close to the events of 9-11 [27]. Eight and a half seasons or 204 episodes later it closed down July 14th, 2014. Although we shall primarily dive into some of the rather abstract claims about the in- herent game character of 24, it will be helpful to quickly provide the highlights of the plot and scope of the series limiting ourselves to the first modus vivendi.
The first twenty-four episodes take place on the day of the Presidential primary in Los Ange- les, where Jack Bauer, chief field agent at the Los Angeles-based CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit), and his distinguished team of men and women uncover a plot to gun down Presidential con- tender David Palmer. With only 24 hours to de- also deal with his stressful marriage and the un- expected disappearance of his troubled teenage daughter. This juxtaposition of big-time political conflicts and micro-sociological issues becomes an enduring theme of the narrative from this point on. In Season Two, now-President David Palmer reaches out to Jack, who is called upon to stop another terrorist plot with global implica- tions. A nuclear bomb is set to go off sometime that day in Los Angeles. Of course, Jack is the only one who can stop it. Three years later (in fiction time), in Season Three, Jack captures and detains a powerful drug lord named Ramon Sal- US Government with the threat of releasing a vi- rus that will kill millions if they do not set him free. Palmer seeks re-election for a second term,
together with a crooked chief of staff, and a girl- friend who may not be telling him all he needs to know.
Interestingly, 24 can be viewed as a massive commentary on and use of dromology, or speed [28]. Dromos is the Ancient Greek noun for race or racetrack. On one level, speed signifies the up- beat tempo that is personified by Jack Bauer and and contemporary styles. On another level, speed works as an underlying code that the viewers need to adopt and adapt to in order to gradually unlock the many game-like scenarios and quali- ties of 24. Speed is not just something that the series is about; speed is also, and more deci- sively, the code necessary for the production of meaning in 24 as a whole.
Paul Virilio argues that the role of speed has previously been overlooked in accounts of the or- ganization of civilizations and their politics, and that speed is crucial to the production of wealth and power [28]. According to Virilio, speed is a measure of a triumphant dominance over and control of space. Speed, moreover, is a variable of how information is carried over distances, as attested by Manuel Castells [29]. Resolutely re- jecting the forms of economic determinism that dromology focuses on those instruments that ac- celerate and intensify speed, and which augment the wealth and power of those groups who con- trol them. In his vision, the military comes to control speed, thus becoming a governing power in society that affects all layers of a differentiated society. This way, speed signifies not just trans- portation but also the mechanisms of networks synchronicity becoming the ultimate standard.
24
[30]. As evidenced in the following quote from Jack right after he is briefed from CTU headquar- ters that an aiding SWAT team is twenty minutes away from the scene:
Jack: Dammit.
need to intercept now, before they move the nuke.
Later on, we shall see how Jack uses the art of dromology to his advantage in the pursuit of sav- ing the world, mastering the mechanics of the fic- tion he is placed within and winning the game.
24 was one of the first major TV shows to pre- sent its story across several platforms; television, web, PC games, and websites, constantly over- stepping the demarcations that used to define the specificity of media and their contents [31].
An enduring trademark of the 24 brand is the porous network of screens and sub-screens. The effectiveness of this technological stamp is veri- fied in the beginning and finale of an episode.
When the plot thickens, and the digital watch ap- proaches full hour, we are reminded each week that Jack has more than a few calamities to take care of [32]. Compared to the computer game in- terface the split-screen mode locates between first person shooters and real-time strategy games. Repeatedly the camera is placed ex- so that we experience the events from his posi- tion in space. This is an example of internal fo- calization, a spatial modus operandi that enables the viewer to perceive space from within analo- gous to classic first-person shooters like Quake- series (id Software 1996-), Doom-series (id Soft- ware 1993-), and Unreal Tournament-series (Epic Games 1998-).
However, the screen is also designed so that we may concurrently access different layers of infor- mation and embark upon story trajectories simi- lar to strategy and role-playing games (e.g. Bal- 1-2 Black Isle Studios), StarCraft-se- ries (Blizzard Entertainment 1998-), and World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment 2004-). This spatial technique is called external focalization that feeds from frequent shots of computer screen as props and gadgets within the story.
CTU headquarters has of course lots of them, but Jack himself also employs a choice of palmtops, devices including the allusion to shooters and strategy games are part and parcel of the intrinsic tension between logistics and structure on one side and chaotic density on the other. And since the audience cannot rise above the visual repre- sentation of real-time that would acquire flash backs, switching time sections, etc. the charac- ters of 24 do the job for us. They provide over- views, get hold of status reports, sneak up relia- ble intelligences, and download intelligible crime topographies.
As already mentioned, dromology operates on the basis of speed and paths through terrains.
Both relate to the spaces that the characters in- habit and pass through, for instance, the urban space or military facilities [28].
24 as a
pher Hight claims that Jack Bauer uses transpor- tation and telecommunication equipment to move through zones of war and conflict where each scenario seems to seamlessly trigger the next [33]. Almost as if Jack was placed upon a conveyor belt. Jack uses vehicles, mobile phones, and heat maps from the ludified inven- tory that functions as
as Hight calls them to slide through scenarios fully equipped and armed. In ludic terms this is the avatar-character in a constant state of alert progressively unlocking mechanics and flaw- lessly gaining access to ever new sites of con- flict. In a more traditional cinematic sense, the style and visuals of this action-on-a-conveyor- belt allude to th -
tions, theatrically displayed in movies like Baz Moulin Rouge (20th Century Fox 2001) and The Great Gatsby (Warner Bros Pic- tures 2013).
Anna Karenina (Universal Pictures) from 2012 also springs to mind.
prime vehicle, the Chevy Suburban SUV, as a lit- erary sign rife with allegorical and ideological meaning, the communication and transportation ransform into de- territorializing vectors: forces that pose as threats to a territory. The kind of vectors that Jack pos- sesses must be mobile, which is fitting for a spe- cial agent always on the move; they must be fast, and operationally efficient. However, all these props also serve the imminent conflict and unbal-
. At all times they may desta- bilize his path, knock him down from the belt or otherwise interfere with the seamless trajectory.
In 24, vector quantities are equally or perhaps more important than speed itself. While speed (50 miles per hour) is a scalar, and the same goes for distance, velocity (60 miles per hour south) is a vector. Vectorization implies both the magni- tude and the direction of an object, such as driv- r swiftly from point A to point B.
Vectorization transforms an open territorial space, a space that can be negotiated (a play- space) into a closed and structured space (a game-space) [34]. When vectors operate in a ter- ritory, especially as means to defend against de-
controlling the borders of a (region of) space by structuring the possibilities of movements within this (region of) space.
Vectorization happens within territories, thus serving as bridges
and those of the non-player characters (the the world. His actions are constrained similar to a game with fixed rules, quantifiable outcome, and a semantic of winning or losing. The struc- turing of this area and its topographical nodes dog his measures. From a political and military perspective, territory is a space to be defended and secured, and to be invaded and colonized [35]. Within modern societies, such territory was defined and occasionally defied by the nation- state. In the contemporary world that 24 de-
picts Empire the
city in which Bauer operates has been displaced by a machinery of speed and power [36]
ssive, apoc- alyptic allusions and disorientation: the city is, simultaneously, the desert, and the desert can easily be mistaken for the city [37]. LA is merely a synonym for game-space, the game board or game world. At any range, instantaneous military violence can be launched from hidden spaces, such as airplanes, nuclear submarines, missiles, and biochemical sources.
Ultimately, 24 can be put on a formula:
Momentum + direction = mission.
It embodies the oldest mode of storytelling questing with an in-build drive towards the rai-
of real-time [38]. The invariable tasks that Jack Bauer must undertake throughout the seasons do not merely follow from the abiding narrative and the unyielding plot. Rather, they should be seen as the bundles of activities which trigger the gamified errands of Bauer.
These errands can be grouped into three: 1) The task of protagonist is to locate nodes within a network in which case Jack is a space
as time rushes by, and he gets wounded more and more, is a testimony to his enduring profession- alism. 3) Finally, Jack must pursue focal points within a topographical space. This latter activity positions
the lookout for new levels, access points, and
passages leading from one region of space to an- other. The frenzied pace of unlocking new levels local sites to each other in 24
appears cynical: He has already been there; he has already done that; floating on top of the con- veyor belt. At other times, however, there is a sense of novelty and fresh panic invested in the many hidden, disorienting, and vulnerable areas of Los Angeles and its vicinity. The vectorization of speed suggests that the unfolding of space is important, not only in the obvious sense that it participates in the conventional extrication of the plot and its structures, but also because the un- folding is set here within a networked, abstract space in which qualities of surfing, interpreting, and gaming are vital.
play: the formalized interaction that occurs when a player follows the rules of a game and experi- ences its system through play [34]. In the midst of
physical rules of
very often get confused with the mission rules.
Sometimes, Jack pauses and tries to understand the rules of the world that demand a certain out- come of him and dictates a specific position on
-time scheme of things, which translate to the physical and pragmatic environment, there rarely seems time enough to question neither the nature of the un- derlying frame of fiction or the superficial game missions. Jack rarely if at all verbalizes the stress that comes with such a double bind. He shares this trait with Jason Bourne who cannot and must not reflect on his fighting mechanics while caught in the actual (boss) fight. Both of them just keep going, on top of their conveyor belts.
The narrative commotion in the opening Ja- son Bourne movie (Universal Pictures 2002) cir- advanced strategic capabilities. The character, played by Matt Damon, is not aware, to begin with, that he even has such potential. The kind of action that Bourne performs, kickboxing, taking down multiple enemies at once, using compli- cated, semi-automatic rifles, climbing down rooftops, seems transgressive, somehow outside his realm. And yet the viewers know exactly that these features firmly connect to the game Bourne
is playing [39]. In fact, this double token of the playful, franchised, modern day action hero is equally the tie-in to games and the reference to mythologized story scenarios: The hero thinks he is deploying transgressive forces, while specta- tors are acutely aware that the former is simply using immanent skills; much the same way that a prince believes his voyaging into mysterious, dangerous territory (preferably by crossing a pens in just about every fairytale. Jason Bourne may contemplate, inside the fiction, that he is try- ing to figure out or remember the outline of a game he does not quite comprehend. We, the au- dience who know better, understand that this ex- cursion towards clarification and the subsequent operationalization of said clarity is part and par- cel of the character driven game.
Just like the Bourne universe 24 encompasses a game world, game rules, and game mechanics.
The fictional world (made up of finite territories) is commonly the city of Los Angeles (later on New York and London). Rules address the at- tempt to secure a territory (think the map
Counter-Strike (Valve Software 1999), disentangle a conspiracy (as in the video game Deus Ex (Eidos Interactive 2000), and pre- vent a catastrophe from happening. The most ob- vious parallel, however, is to the Grand Theft Auto game franchise (Rockstar Games 1997-).
Notably GTA San Andreas (2004), which hap- pens to take place in an LA-like urban environ- ment stigmatized with discrete boundaries be- tween both hostile and friendly sites, and which like 24 channels the action through speed, motion and the use of violent and de-territorializing con- veyor belts.
Mechanics, in 24, apply to the adjustable, usually movable, damageable, and, to a certain
terms from Pure War, game mechanics involve those instruments that accelerate and intensify speed [40]. Movements in urban space bring out an order that is depicted in terms of a contin- gency of actions and an intention to control such movements by locating those military and politi- cal technologies that will be able to master them.
As a character Jack Bauer continues the tradi- tion of the Hollywood action hero. The typical
action hero can be grasped as a cultural commod- ity and a composite made of game parts. The hero typically comes with three pre-installed features.
1) He or she are modifiable to the extent that they ill set.
2) They are location-based, implying that they simply have to stick to the confines of the game board. 3) And, finally, they are vehicles of (speedy) accomplishment. Very often, they are forced to take control of their own vehicle (a car, their own bodies, weapons); and equally often someone or something else takes control of them and uses them as a vehicle. Heroes always act as (sometimes from God, in Blues Brothers (Uni- versal Pictures 1980), and they always drive themselves toward a goal. In fact, they are the ul- timate, cliché ridden God of structuralist poetics,
[41]. Although they maneuver within a narrow and very controlled world sealed off by strict (game) rules, they are also designed to be flexible. They are toys [11], assemblages that can be pulled apart and reas- sembled in the wider context of consumption.
heroes does not relate to their ethos or other such moral or psychologi- cal constitution. Instead they owe their existence to a mode of elasticity enabling each and one of us, the consumers and interpreters, to fuse Jack perhaps teaming up with the semi-ironical and very British brutality of Jason Statham
lage of action characters. In short: Action heroes are one-dimensional, yet flexible things.
Jack follows rules. Not just by doing what he is told by the President or other superior figures but by subjugating his will to that of the game. If he (or we) does not abide to the absolute, non- negotiable rules of the game there is no game. He moves (fast) within the confines of the board and its parametrical edges. As such, the way that Jack acts out the mission equally combines narrative, space, and gaming. 1) In the narrative regime by fulfilling one quest after the other of the plot. 2) Spatially by securing and regaining power of a territory under siege. 3) And in terms of the game he is playing by combining cartographic and net- working knacks with those that allow him to in- terpret the various deceptions as means to steer effectively through the game and follow it right to the end of the line.
It goes without saying, that were he to over- step this line, he would essentially, and literally,
rantino way of thinking, but in the overtly prag- matic sense of aborting the game. If he goes to China, for instance, this happens between sea- sons, or as a kind of preparation for (the next) gameplay. Is he a toy? Sure, Jack can be treated like a toy, much the same way as the iconic ac- tion heroes James Bond, Jason Bourne and John pict the whereabouts of the fictional Bauer they may be playing with him, because they activate -like attributes and free him from his platform, aka the television series. But still they duplicate exactly the board of Greater Los Angeles (now on the real Google Maps) thus ech- oing what Jack Bauer fundamentally does best:
Play by the rules = stick to the board. In many ways, Bauer is the last of the dead serious action of irony or self-refer- entiality in him. As such, he is the quintessence and reference point of ludification.
In the attempt to read 24 as a ludic fiction, we should not confuse the installment of weapons, telecommunication, and transportation devices with understated signifiers of geopolitical, urban worry. There is a tendency to treat such devices, guns, phones, and cars, as either parts of a narra- tological framework, repeated over and over in movies and television series, or as food for alle-
24. On the contrary, one could imagine a hermeneutician insist, it is a symbol of modern struggle, a subtext revealing the complex interaction of control and territorial dominance, on the one hand, and alien- ation and territorial threat, on the other. But what if this rich container of significance and allegor- ical prominence was deliberately emptied? Intro ludo-interpretation, at least in its bleakest, purest and most cynical form.
What
ing vector; the car as an amalgamation of veloc- ity and momentum; the car as an enclosed space within which and upon which Jack Bauer, our hero, plays out his game and defeats his enemies, one by one. The trick is to think of something that enables a move from A to B, the action that this movement involves, rather than the sumptuous meaning and socio-cultural concern it brings erary style in the age of computer games. Sym-
bolically, a car is a car is a car. It is not a subtex- has to figure out before one can observe the real truth about this car. The same thing would hap- pen if one were to ask a Freudian scholar armed with an analytical apparatus of suspicion to stop treating dream scenarios as symbolic significa- tions. This would be almost impossible. In ludo- interpretation, ideally a train is a train is a train and not a token of sexual intercourse. A car in 24 is a car, a vehicle, a vector, and a game mechanic.
owe her functionality in the show to a commit- ment to the ethos of Jack Bauer, as character and dramaturgical cliché. Instead, Kimberley (Elisha Kushbert) is merely a non-playing character, an NPG, that has to be collared and eliminated, ef- without too much damage, and without overtly
Ludo-interpretation thus becomes a strategy of hermeneutical negation. Its sufficiency is equivalent to the ruling out (rather than the taking in) of socio-cultural, political, and narratological signs in order to arrive at the ludic nucleus of the story-game. In this paper we have tried to unravel the bits and pieces of this nucleus and at the same time demonstrated what ludification is and is all about.
Viewed from a materialistic, and ontological, understanding of linear media, a television series can never count as a truly interactive form. How- ever, as we have explained through our dromos infused case study of 24, it is the epistemological markers of game-like qualities (speed, weapons, conveyor be that not only ques- tion the more general claim that computer games represent a new, spatial mode of storytelling but also dictates a methodological rethinking of the factual elements we see on television. The danger is of course that such a methodology, and a fitting case, end up becoming a rhetoric attempt to use game metalanguage to describe a TV se- ries. In this paper we have tried the exact oppo- site: to read 24 as a stone-faced, epistemological game.
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Ludography
Assassins Creed (Ubisoft 2007- ).
-2 (Black Isle Studios 1996-) Counter-Strike (Valve Software 1999) Deus Ex (Eidos Interactive 2000) Doom series (id Software 1993-) Myst (Broderbound 1993-2010) Pong (Atari 1972)
Quake series (id Software, 1996-)
StarCraft 1-2 (Blizzard Entertainment 1998-) The Stanley Parable (Galactic Cafe 2011) Unreal Tournament (Epic Games, 1998-) World of Warcraft (Blizzard Entertainment 2004-).
Movies and TV series 24 (Fox 2001-2010, 2014)
Anna Karenina (Universal Pictures, 2012) Dark (Netflix, 2017-)
Lost (ABC, 2004-2010)
Mission Impossible (Paramount Pictures, 1996- )
Moulin Rouge (20th Century Fox, 2001) Blues Brothers (Universal Pictures 1980) The Bourne Identity (Universal Pictures 2002) The Great Gatsby (Warner Bros Pictures, 2013) True Detectives (HBO, 2014-)
Wreak-It Ralph (Walt Disney Studies 2012)
